WA Wine Tour Guide cover

Wow, did you see the great shot on the new Washington Wine Tour Guide? 

Oh, wait, that's my photograph.

Epic Journey of Spiritual Discovery

When I look back at my behind-the-scenes adventures while gathering Ancient Myths and Architypal Dreams from Africa's most remote tribes, the stories are amazing. For example, one night I hear a lion roaring while I'm reading Shakespeare in my little backpacking tent at the edge of a Karo tribe village along the Omo River. Hearing that lion roar was a truly a reality shift for me.  This wasn't a zoo.  The next roar is closer. Then closer.  Do something. I looked around my tent to make sure that I didn't have any food inside. (Later a friend reminded me that indeed I was the food.) 

Come to the Epic Journey Presentation to hear how the story ends.

(Above) This is the Konso tribe village called Busso, one of my favorite villages in all of Africa.

(Above) The Konso tribe witch doctor has a region-wide reputation of being able to pull out evil spirits to cure diseases. So in the interest of spiritual science, I had to go and check him out. 

He wanted to charge me to take photographs, but he wanted some professional photographs of himself.  When he told me his fee, I replied in a very surprised voice, that my fee was exactly the same. What to do? He wouldn't give in, nor would I. Finally, the culture minister who was traveling with us, paid the fees. He actually wanted the witch doctor perform magic on him.

This boy had severe headaches before he went to the witch doctor and reported that he felt better after the "operation." Unfortunately, I never did a long term follow  up.

 (Above) This is the evil spirit the witch doctor pulled from the subject. Looks pretty nasty; so does the witch doctor's hand.

(Above) On my first visit to Busso in 2001, I photographed an old man. I printed lots of the photographs I snapped during that first trip and took them with me on the second trip. It turns out the old man had died. When I gave the photograph to the son, he cried. It was the only thing he had to remember his father. That's the power of photography.


Epic Journey of Spiritual Discovery live presentation
July 1, 2012   4:00 to 5:30pm
Mumm Napa Gallery 
8445 Silverado Trail
Rutherford, CA 94573
RSVP  707-967-7740 

What does this road look like?

Since I've been writing for 6 to 8 hours a day on my China Winery book, I try to take a walk or bicycle ride just to escape. During that escape, I take photographs just for fun. This one is from a week ago on the main road to our house. It was taken with a Nikon D7000. Since then I've  sold that camera as it was replaced with a D800. 

So what do you think?

Getting to the CiZhong Vineyard

Working on the Yunnan section of my Chinese Winery book today.

It took us almost three days along this road to get to Cizhong Church and vineyard that I wanted to include in the ShangriLa winery shoot. The church was originally built by French missionaries in 1867. The missionaries are buried in the nearby cemetery.

Golf in China

While working on my Chinese Winery book, I come across the strangest sights. This is the view from the Junding Winery golf course near Penglai, Shandong Province, China.

Chinese vineyard near the Glaciers

Here I am editing photographs of the vineyards in Yunnan Province near Tibet for the Chinese Winery book.

Check out the glaciers, part of the Mingyong Glacier Park, towering above the vineyard at Minyong village (also written Mingjin) at the entrance to the Park near LanCang (also called Lantsang, Lansang and Mekong) River, in the Heng Duan (Hengduan) Mountain Range, Yunnan Province, China, Asia.

Did you see the person at the edge of the lower vineyard?

Xinjiang Province in one photo

This photograph sums up the Xinjiang Province for me: grapes, nuclear power, lots of construction and incredible landscape.

Premium Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard where Citic Guoan Winery (known as Citic Guoan Wine Sales Co., LTD and formerly Suntime International Wine Company) gets grapes, with a nuclear power plant and Bogda Peak in the Tian Shan Mountain range, Fukang, Xinjian Province, China, Asia.